Forza Motorsport 4: Week in Review 4/6/12
April 9, 2012by Brian Ekberg
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The announcement of the 2013 SRT Viper is big news for fans
of the beloved American supercar. (And if you missed the unveiling, check it
out here;
click "See the Reveal" to see the video). Yes, the SRT Viper is a
big deal for fans of hugely powerful, modern American muscle, and it also
happens to be a big deal for Forza 4 fans because the SRT Viper will be in the
hands of Forza Motorsport 4 players this summer. That’s right, Forza fans,
you’ll be taking the SRT Viper out for laps of the Bernese Alps or Catalunya
before the car is available to the buying public!
The new 2013 SRT Viper will arrive in Forza Motorsport 4
this summer in a pack that will include a drivable version of the Viper as well as a fully immersive
Autovista SRT Viper experience, where you’ll learn not just the technical
details behind the Viper’s powerful performance, but the colorful history behind
this latest generation Viper’s production. Want to see the Viper tearing it up
in Forza 4? Look no further:
In addition to debuting the new Viper, SRT also introduced
the new race-ready SRT Viper GTS-R, which will be competing in the 2012 ALMS season later
this year. Sporting a snazzy Forza Motorsport livery, this silver beast
will be driven by the likes of Ryan Hunter-Reay and Kuno Wittmer, among others. Check out the
story on Autoblog about the GTS-R, as well as for more pics of this incredible racer, and look for more on the Viper race program in the coming months.
April DLC Released
While the SRT Viper is coming soon, the April Alpinestars Car Pack is available
now! This pack includes ten cars, ranging from the malevolent racing fury of the 2011 Mercedes-Benz #35
Black Falcon SLS AMG GT3 and the 2011 Aston Martin #009 Aston Martin Racing AMR
One, to fan favorites like the 1995 BMW M5 and the 1985 Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE.
Earlier in the week, we put a poll up on our official Facebook page asking which of the April pack cars are your favorite and, while the Mercedes
Black Falcon came out ahead, cars like the RX-7 and the 2012 Jaguar XKR-S aren’t
that far behind.
We’ve also got our brand new crop of Rivals Mode events,
including an awesome event at Road America starring the aforementioned Black
Falcon SLS AMG GT3, a car that is seemingly meant to be driven on that track.
Community photo contest honorable mention
Demetrius 81
The April Alpinestars Pack is the final pack included in our Forza Motorsport 4 Season Pass. Future DLC packs will need to be purchased on a pack-by-pack basis and you will still be able to purchase individual cars within a pack as well.
May VIP Rivals Event Poll
The polls for the May VIP Rivals Event have begun! This time around, we're starting things out with body style; do you want to race a hatchback, wagon, SUV, roadster, or economy car in May's VIP Rivals Mode event? Let us know on Facebook and look for a new poll next week!
News Discussion Forum
If you haven’t been to the FM.net forums lately, you’re missing out! In
addition to our (relatively new) forum dedicated to our next game, Forza Horizon,
this week we created a forum dedicated to discussing the latest news in the
Forza world. Imaginatively titled "News & Updates Discussion",
this forum is your place to talk about
what’s happening in the news and discuss our latest FM.net columns as well as
our place to give you timely information and announcements. In fact, you can go there now and discuss this very edition of the Week in Review! In the immortal words of Viv Savage, "Quite exciting, this computer magic..."
Check it out and
let us know what you think!
Heavy Metal Affliction, Coming Next Week
Next Thursday we will be bringing you the first edition of our new column--"Heavy Metal Affliction"--featuring real cars owned by Forza Community members and other cool real-life builds that we discover. If you have a cool project car you are working on, finished, or just pulled out of the barn share it with us and we may feature a story about you and your Heavy Metal Affliction.
Stop… Bounty Time!
Let’s talk bounties for a moment. While our King of the Track series of Rivals
Mode contests is on hiatus (hopefully to resume soon), our Community Bounty program is still going strong!
This week we’ve got a treat for you, as we’ve got another Turn 10 employee who
has volunteered. One of our resident tools guys Peter—Gamertag T10TailHappy—is serving as this week’s
Community Bounty and his event is the Cone Killer Mugello Rivals Mode event,
which can be found in the Community Monthly channel in Rivals Mode. In true
Community Bounty fashion, Peter’s got an awesome forum thread dedicated to his
contests. The thread has practically everything you could want: lots of good
discussion, a poll asking which unicorn car should send out to those who beat
his time, and even parody rap lyrics. In essence, it’s what the Internet is all about, so get in on the thread and
the Community Bounty fun before the Peter’s stint ends on Tuesday, April 10 at
8 a.m. PST.
Community photo contest honorable mention SJD Kemuri
And, as long as we’re talking bounties, let me give you an
update on my own personal bounty program. As many of you know, last month I was
looking for tunes for my cherished Ford Country Squire; tunes designed to
improve my position on last month’s Rivals Mode event, "The Regatta." The response was strong and I’d like to thank
everyone who sent me a tune. In fact, this week, I did thank everyone who made a tuning file for me, by sending each of
you a unicorn car. So, thank you again. You guys are awesome. Even the ones who
charged me money for your tunes.
Community photo contest second place winner CarnivoreMrG
Now, let’s talk about the future of Mechberg’s Bounties (First
order of business: Pick a Better Name) which I’d like to make a regular feature
here in the community. The idea is simple—each month I’ll pick a Rivals Mode
event and set a time in an appropriate car. I’ll put the call out for tunes for
that particular car and anyone whose tune improves my time on that Rivals Mode
event’s leaderboard will get a unicorn car. I’ll even up the ante a bit: the
player who creates my favorite tune of the month (which won’t necessarily be
the fastest time, mind you) will win something cool in addition to a unicorn
car (like a download code for the next month’s DLC pack, for example).
So, let’s get to it shall we? This month, I’m tackling the
Open Time Attack Rear Wheel Drive event. You can find this event in the Time
Attack channel in Rivals Mode. This event features B-Class RWD production cars,
and I’ve chosen to run the 2011 Maserati
Quattroporte Sport GT S from the April Alpinestars Pack. My current time
is a 1:31.5 in a completely stock model,
which has me at around the #19,000 spot on the leaderboard at the time of this
writing.
Now is where you come in. Put up a tune for the 2011
Quattroporte on the Forza Motorsport 4 storefront, with the description “Quattro Mechberg”. If I use your tune
and it improves my position on the leaderboard, you win! Stay tuned to this
space in the coming weeks as I congratulate the winners. Happy tuning
everybody! Oh and let's get a name for this thing too; hit this thread and give me your suggestions. The winning idea will get a unicorn car!
Community photo contest third place winner Fried Soap
Game With Devs
Our next Game With Devs event is coming soon. In fact, it’s coming next
week! On Thursday, April 12, from 10 a.m. – noon Pacific, the Turn 10 community
team will be firing up their copies of Forza Motorsport 4 and we want you to
join us! As always, we’ll be playing online, chatting on our official Facebook page,
and giving away copious amounts of unicorn cars. Our last event was perhaps our
most successful ever and we’re looking to top it this time. So clear your
calendars, quit your job, and divorce your significant other, because you’ve got
two solid hours of Forza 4 action coming your way next Thursday! (Note: Please
don’t quit your job or divorce your significant other. Unless, you know, you
want to.)
Turn 10 Track Days:
Long Beach is Coming!
Two days after our Game WIth Devs event, we’ll be holding our next Turn 10
Track Days event in celebration of the American Le Mans Series at Long Beach
race. The race will be held on Saturday, April 14 at 4:30 p.m. Pacific and, as
always, we’ll be streaming the race and chatting with Forza fans on our
official Facebook page. It’s a two-hour
race through the twisting confines of downtown Long Beach and we’ll be watching
it with you on the ESPN app on Xbox LIVE (the race will also be televised live
on ESPN 2). Join us!
Parting Notes
A few quick hits before we leave you for the week:
- Forza player, UpsideDownAce recently posted a review of the 2012 Ultimate GTR,
the kit supercar that’s featured in the March Pirelli Car Pack. He’s got great
things to say about the car in the video which you can see here:
- Our heartfelt condolences go out this week to
the Porsche family. Ferdinand Alexander Porsche , grandson of Porsche founder
Ferdinand Porsche, died Thursday in Salzburg, Austria at the age of 76. Ferdinand was the designer of the
classic 911 model for Porsche, served as chairman of Porsche AG from 1990 to
1993, and also founded the design firm Porsche Design Studio. He will be missed
but his impact on the automotive world will not soon be forgotten.
- Finally, a quick treat spotted on Twitter from
user TRDcameleon, who posted the
following picture in celebration of his 34th birthday.
Happy birthday TRD! And for everyone else… see you next
week!